[Foundation-l] thoughts on leakages

[Michael Snow]

Gerard Meijssen wrote:
> Hoi,
> There is an important difference between a person who walks away in a huff
> as an employee and then decides to stand for board election and a person
> that changes one role for another. The difference is that in the one
> situation I do not expect positive cooperation and in the other I do not see
> such such a problem. From my perspective Danny was not forthcoming in
> explaining why he left his job. I have asked him repeatedly for this from
> the moment when he announced that he would run for a seat on the board of
> trustees.
>   
At this point, I think the time for that may have passed, so that it is 
no longer appropriate to demand such an explanation. Virtually everyone 
on the staff, at least those in the office, has left the organization or 
will very soon because of the relocation to San Francisco. As Mike 
Godwin has mentioned in the context of Carolyn's situation, it's 
generally best to avoid criticism focusing on former employees, whether 
an agreement to that effect exists or not.

I think it's best to look back and recognize that the Wikimedia 
Foundation had some serious failings during this period, primarily due 
to being severely understaffed and the development of a problematic 
organizational culture. With hiring Sue as Executive Director, the many 
other new people, and the move to San Francisco, I look at it as a clean 
break with an opportunity to deal with both the staffing and cultural 
issues. I would leave it at that, which is not a reflection on any 
specific individual in the past - the people involved have suffered from 
these problems more than they've caused them. Had they been properly 
supported and surrounded with qualified people who were needed for other 
roles, things might have been very different. That's unfortunate, but 
now we need to get on with cleaning up any remaining mess and moving 
forward.

--Michael Snow